Articles

It seems
synchronistic that at the time when the Olympic Games are being hosted in China
that Yiyun Li, the young Chinese woman author was here in Ireland to read at
the Kilkenny Arts Festival. Yiyun
Li won the inaugural Frank O’Connor Short Story Award as well as many other
literary awards. At a time when
truth is what is urgently required in international politics her survival of a
Chinese regime where people were and are depersonalised and you dare not speak
the truth is a testament to the unconquerability of the human spirit.

What
happens in politics begins within the dynamics of the home. Individuals are not born tyrants; their
early traumatic experiences determine the survival strategies they create, some
of which can be absolutely terrifying in nature. When as adults these traumatised individuals are in
positions of power – political, social, religious, educational and familial –
their defensive behaviours are a great threat to the wellbeing of their charges. A vicious cycle now ensues, because
those individuals who are now under threat have no alternative than to resort
to counter-defences, which result in an ever increasing spiral of turmoil and
conflict. In working with
individuals and groups who live in such threatening environments I can often
trace the origins of the oppression back five, six or seven generations. Unless
someone across those generation lines – parent, teacher, bishop, political
leader, manager – examines his or her defensive ways of being the oppression
will continue. It is for this
reason that those people who head familial, social, educational, religious,
work and political systems have an urgent responsibility to reflect on how they
are within themselves and how they are with others. When they find themselves deeply stuck in their defensive
ways they need to seek help outside of themselves to break the defensive
deadlock. Only the
expression of truth can break this vicious cycle and it is both an individual
and collective responsibility that we strive to break the silence on oppression
and declare the truth of the sacredness of each human being. Christ said that ‘the truth will set
you free’. How right he was, but the reality is that speaking the truth, being
real and authentic are the most challenging responsibilities of all, not
because we do not want to, but because the consequences can be hugely
emotionally and socially threatening, even life-threatening.

In the face
of oppression many of us learned the defensive strategies of ‘keeping mum’,
‘swallowing our feelings and grievances’, ‘turning a blind eye to neglect’,
‘keeping silent in the face of neglect’, ‘hiding the truth’ and ‘leaving truth
that needed to be spoken unsaid’.
Many of us were raised in families where the unspoken rule was ‘don’t
upset your mother’ or ‘don’t upset your father. Our experiences in schools were that it is cheeky to speak
the truth and that ‘the teacher knows best’. In churches you dare not question dogma and in countries you
dare not ‘cry freedom’. The
oppression of truth is on a continuum but there are few individuals who feel
safe enough to be truthful in all situations.

Yiyun Li’s
mother became paranoid during the Maoist regime and this defensive creation
escalated following the massacre in Tiananmen Square where truth was brutally
crushed. Paranoia is a wise
madness because it knows the terrifying consequences of speaking the
truth. One of the most common illusions
we create is that we all came from happy families. The other illusion, probably less common now, is that
‘schooldays were the best days of our lives’! Gandhi spoke wisely
about what he called ‘the
seven deadly sins’: ‘pleasure
without conscience’, ‘knowledge without character’, ‘wealth without work’,
‘science without humanity’, ‘politics without principle’, ‘commerce without
humanity’ and ‘worship without sacrifice’. In many ways all of these ‘sins’ can be put under the one
‘sin’ – ‘relationship without truth’ – which is the greatest threat to the
survival of humanity.

Unless the truth
is spoken within familial, social, educational, religious and political systems
no progress can be made in reducing man’s inhumanity to man. Until people are put before profits,
dignity before pleasure, truth before knowledge, people before science,
humanity before commerce and truth in politics, the creative ways individuals
and groups have developed to hide the truth will continue and human suffering
will endure.

Tony
Humphreys is a practising Clinical Psychologist, Author and Director of several
courses in UCC on personal development, parent mentoring and relationships.